Infant&#39;s drying garment



April 9, 1963 R. E. STELTER INFANT'S DRYING GARMENT Filed Oct. 24, 1960 INVENTOR RUBY E. STELT-:R

B Y Hmmm m/22%' United States Patent Office &084346 Patented Apr. 9, 1963 3384346 INFANTS DRYKNG GARMENT Ruby E. Stelter, Box 186, Melrose, Minn. Filed Oct. 24-, 1968, er. No. 64,632 Claims, (Cl. 2--84) This invention relates to infants' garments and more particularly to infants' drying garments and the method of making such garments.

An object of this invention is to provide a novel hooded drying garment, of simple and inexpensive construction for use in readily and completely drying infants.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel and improved hooded drying garment, attractively constructed from inherently absorbent toweling material, and being especially adapted for use in completely and ettfectively drying infants.

A further object of this invention is to provide a novel and improved infant s hooded dry-ing garment, of highly attractive appearance, and which is arranged and constructed to insure comfort to an infant during drying of the latter.

Another object of this invention is to :provide a novel method of constructing an infant's hooded drying garment from a single blank of towel-ing material.

A further object is to provide a novel and improved method of constructing an infant's hooded drying garment from a single blank of highly absorbent textile material wherein the hood of the garment is formed by cutting and stitching only a corner portion of the blank and thereafter incasing an elast-ic element within a fold to dene a neck portion below the hood.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description, made in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan View of the completed infant`s hooded drying grament;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view on a reduced scale of a rectangular blank used in constructing the infant's drying garment, .the blank being illustrated subsequent to making a cut in one corner thereof;

FIG. 3 is a top plan View of the blank illustrating the manner in which the fiaps defincd by the cut are folded into superimposed relation;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view similar to FIG. 3 illustrating the formation of the hood of the garment after the fiaps have been stitched in superimposed relation;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary View on an -enlarged scale of the front edge portion of the hood illustrating the reinforcing stitching for imparting rigidity to the seamed edge thereof;

FIG. 6 is a cross ectional view on an enlarged scale taken approximately along line 6-6 of FIG. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional View upon an enlarged scale taken approximately along line 7-7 of FIG. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to the drawing, and more particularly to FIG. l it will be seen one embodiment of my invention, an infants hooded drying garment, designated in its entirety by the reference numeral 10 which includes a hood 11 and a body-enclosing portion 12. I employ a novel method of constructing the hooded drying garment, the method consisting in steps wheren the entire garment is constructed from a single integral blank of inherently absorbent textle material.

Referring now to FIG. 2 it will be seen that in carrying out the steps of my novel method I provide a substantially square sheet or blank B of teXtile material, preferably terry cloth, which is first cut at one corner along a diagonal line extending from said one corner to the opposite corner of the blank. It will be noted that the cut 13 terminates short of a point midway between the opposite corners of the blank B. After the cut 13 is made in the blank B the peripheral edges are then folded and stitched as at 14 to form a border hem 15 to effectively finish the edges of the blank.

Referring now to FIG. 3 it will be seen that the cut 13 actually denes a pair of triangular fiaps 16 which are folded into superimposed relation so that the edge 17 defined by the cut 13 of each -ap .is positioned closely adjacent the fold line 18 of the other flap. The marginal portion adjacent the cut edge 17 of each fiap is secured to the marginal portion adjacent the fold line 18 of the other flap by means of stitching 1611, as seen in FIG. 7, so that the hood 11 is formed. The edge portions of the fiaps 16 which define the front edge 11a of the hood, as seen in FIG. 5, may be Secured .together by means of a stitching extending closely adjacent the edge 11a.

The blank B is thereafter folded as at 19 along a line extending transversely of the blank from one edge portion to the opposite edge portion below -the hood 11 and a stitching 29 is applied to the told adjacent the fold line 19 to thereby define narrow elongate strip 21 extending transversely of the encircling portion below the hood. This strip 21 has its outermost edge defined by the fold line 19 folded downwardly and Secured -to the blank, as best illustrated in FIG. 6 by means of a st-itching 22 so that a passageway 23 is formed throughout the transverse extent of the body-encircling portion 12 just below the hood 11. An elongate elas-tic element 24 is inserted into the passageway 23 and this elastic element 24 normally is of a length less than the width of the passage 23. One end of the elastic element 24 is Secured to its associated end of the passage 23 by means of an anchoring stitch 25 and the elastic element is thereafter stretched so that the opposite end thereof is also disposed in close proximity to and Secured to its associated end of the passage 23 by means of a similar anchoring stitch 25. It will be noted that inasmuch as only the ends of the elastic element 24 are attached to opposite associated end portions of the passage 23 and since the elastic element is stretched in order to span the transverse width of the body portion of a garment just below the hood, the elastic element will, upon contraction, cause the body portion to be restricted just below the hood to form a neck portion 26 having a plurali-ty of pleats 27 formed therein.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 7, it will be seen that each seam dened by the attachment between the marginal portion adjacent the cut edge 17 of one ap with the marginal portion adjacent the fold line 18 of the other flap is provided with an overcast seam 28 of generally cylindrical shape. This overcast stitch 28, which extends throughout the longitudinal extent of each of the hood seams, not only imparts a certain amount of stiness to peripheral areas of the hood but also enhances the appearance of the garment. Since the overcast stitching extends throughout the longitudinal extent of the hood seams, overcast stitching also presents a V-shaped appearance as best seen in FIG. 1. lt will also be noted that a plurality of transversely extending stitches 29, as best seen in FiGS. 1 and 5, extend parallel to and are spaced from the front edge portion na of the hood 11. This stitching also efiectively stifiens the peripheral -front edge portion of the hood 11 and cooperates with the overcast stitching 23 so that the hood will retain its shape when the garment is positioned upon a substantially flat surface. With this arrangement, the infant may be placed upon the garment With the head of the infant being positioned within the hood so that the corner portions of the body-encircling portion of the garment may thereafter be folded upon the infant. The folded corners of the body portion may be fastened together by means of a safety pin or the like. Both the body and head of the infant will be protected against chill While the highly absorbent terry cloth material will readily drythe infant.

It will be noted that the unique manner in which the neck portion 26 of the garment is formed also not only enhances the appearance of the garment but permitscomfortable use of the garment by the infant. This arrangement also allows the pleated neck portions to he readily extended for cleaning purposes by merely stretching the restricted neck portion of the garment. While the garment is essentially used for drying infants, it will also be noted that the garment may alsobe used as beach apparel for small children to be worn in the manner of a hooded capo.

. It will, therefore, be seen from the precedng paragraphs that I have provided a novel infant's hooded drying garment which is not only of attractive design but also of eflicient Construction. It will be noted that my novel infanfs drying garment permitsan infant to be completely dried while simultaneously preventing the infant from becoming chilled after a bath.

It Will be further noted from the ioregoing description that I have also provided a novel method of constructing an infanfs drying garment from a single integral blank of textile material.

Thus, it will be seen that I have provided not only a novel method of forming an infants drying garment but have also provided a hooded dryng garment which functions in a more eflicient manner than any heretofore known comparable garments.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of my invention which consists of the matter shown and described herein and set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. An infant's drying garment constructed from a single rectangular blank of inherently absorbent toweling textile material and including a substantially rectangular shaped body-enclosing portion, a hood integrally formed with said -body portion adjacent one corner thereof and ,being comprised of a pair of similar superimposed ttiangular flaps, stitching securing said flaps together along their respective marginal edge portions and defining a. triangular seam, and an elongate elastic element encased within a fold formed in said body-enclosing portion and extending transversely thereof from one edge portion to the adjacent edge portion below said hood, said elastic element normally being of a length lessthan the width of the body-enclosing portion closely adjacent and below said hood and being stretched and having opposite terminal portions thereof attached to opposite end portions of said fold to thereby define a pleated neck.

2. The structure as defined in claim 1 and cylindrical stitching enclosing, in certain of the stitching seams, attaching marginal portions of said triangular flaps together, said cylindrical stitching extending throughout the longitudinal extent of said certain seams to define a V- shaped seam servingto impart stifiness to said hood 3. An infant's drying garment constructed from a single rectangular blank of inherently absorbent highly flexible toweling material and including a substantially rectangular body-enclosing portion, a hood integrally formed with said body portion and being comprised of a pair of identica triangular flaps, said flaps -being formed 'by a diagonal cut'made at one `corner of the blank and each having a front edge, said flaps being folded and being disposed in upper and lower superimposed relation, stitching -securing the cut edge of each fiap with a fold line of the other llap, and securing the respective front edges of the flaps together to thereby defin a triangular-shaped seam, -a transverse fold formed in the body-enclosing portion below and closely adjacent said hood, an elongate elastic element disposed within said fold and being of a length less than the length of said fold, said elastic element having its opposite ends secured to the respective corresponding ends of said fold to thereby define a plurality of pleats.

4. structure as dened in claim 3 and a triangular stitching enclosing at least a portion of said first-mentioned stitching along the entire inner connected cut edges and fold lines of said flaps to define a V-shaped seam serving to impart stiitness to said hood.

5. The structure as defined in claim 4 and including a plurality of spaced apart transversely extending stitches applied to said hood in close proximity and in substantiallyi arallel relation to the stitching securing the repective front edge portions of said fiap for imparting stiifness to the peripheral edge portion of the hood.

References cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,S76,023 Barberis Mar. 9, 1926 1,723,644 Collingbourne Aug. 6, 1929 2,072,644 McBee Mar. 2, 1937 2,151381 Goldsmith Mar. 21, 1939 2,242,641 Berger May 20, 1941 2,441,745 Benamy May 18, 1948 2,538,420 Junghans Jan. 16, 1951 2,668,294 Gilpin Feb. 9, 1954 2,706,8l7 Schneider Apr. 26, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 330,441 Italy Oct. 14, 1935 

1. AN INFANT''S DRYING GARMENT CONSTRUCTED FROM A SINGLE RECTANGULAR BLANK OF INHERENTLY ABSORBENT TOWELING TEXTILE MATERIAL AND INCLUDING A SUBSTANTIALLY RECTANGULAR SHAPED BODY-ENCLOSING PORTION, A HOOD INTEGRALLY FORMED WITH SAID BODY PORTION ADJACENT ONE CORNER THEREOF AND BEING COMPRISED OF A PAIR OF SIMILAR SUPERIMPOSED TRIANGULAR FLAPS, STITCHING SECURING SAID FLAPS TOGETHER ALONG THEIR RESPECTIVE MARGINAL EDGE PORTIONS AND DEFINING A TRIANGULAR SEAM, AND AN ELONGATE ELASTIC ELEMENT ENCASED WITHIN A FOLD FORMED IN SAID BODY-ENCLOSING PORTION AND EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY THEREOF FROM ONE EDGE PORTION TO THE ADJACENT EDGE PORTION BELOW SAID HOOD, SAID ELASTIC ELEMENT NORMALLY BEING OF A LENGTH LESS THAN THE WIDTH OF THE BODY-ENCLOSING PORTION CLOSELY ADJACENT AND BELOW SAID HOOD AND BEING STRETCHED AND HAVING OPPOSITE TERMINAL PORTIONS THEREOF ATTACHED TO OPPOSITE END PORTIONS OF SAID FOLD TO THEREBY DEFINE A PLEATED NECK. 